Here's a Halloween idea that can be done as a short segment during a class, or you could really dig into it and spend more time. (I taught this spur of the moment, so I wasn't as prepared as I would have like to have been, as I'm sure you'll see.)
Here's the music.
If you'd like to dig in more, you can let the students accompany the song using a minor chord on pitched instruments, la, do, and mi (b, d, and f, for example). You can also let the students use un-pitched percussion instruments and play them as they sing the refrain with you.
I don't usually sing this story exactly the same way twice. You could have fun with it, letting students write their own words to the melody, or even go further and make up a new melody using the same form (verse and refrain).
You could dig more into expressive qualities of music as well. The boo at the end could be a sfz, you could vary the dynamics and tempo to create more meaning and excitement.
Happy Halloween!
If you use this, comment here and let us know how it went, and what you did with it.
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ReplyDeleteI tried this with K-6 using all kinds of homemade sound effects. We invited the classroom teachers in at the end of class 1 minute early to perform for them. The kids loved the idea of scaring their teachers.
ReplyDeleteFor the older grades I posted the lyrics on my overhead and taught the music by rote. The younger grades I used simple finger plays to teach the words while singing. The melody is repetitively simple so they picked it up quickly. For each line we talked about what sound to make, a heartbeat for the first line, a spooky sound for any verses talking about the graveyard, some sort of crunching or tapping sound for bones, etc. I had a long table with all kinds of household items and instruments for making sounds. Check online for lists: a bag of gravel, a bag of cornflakes, a plastic tub (great for heartbeat sound), a homemade cuica (laughing cup), old pair of shoes, an old rusty chair, and more. We explored the sounds, then I chose different kids to come up and select their own sound effect for their verse. The rest of the kids were the Scarers who would sing and say boo at the end. This lesson was a lot of fun. Even my 6th graders got into it. If I did it again, however, I would try to extend the idea of sound effects over more lessons because all the kids wanted a chance to make spooky sounds, but we just didn't have time.
Thank you for sharing! I'm so glad you were able to use this with all of your classes. I love the idea of exploring sound effects relating to the song using "instruments" from home. Not all of our teachers have instruments, and this could even be done by our teachers on a cart.
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